How The Mighty Anthony Has Fallen
by SuperBear
Summary: An adult Anthony abuses his servants in his floating castle. Until the aliens who gave him his power come to take it away.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story should be considered separate from the events in "Anthony Conquers The Kanamits."

Rod Serling stepped forward to introduce this new episode.

"Good evening, my friends," he said cordially with a somewhat stiff smile. "Take a look at this."

A film clip was shown of Anthony as a boy, kneeling in his yard as he held his hand over a two-headed squirrel.

"This is Anthony, an amazing little boy with incredible almost godlike powers."

A new film clip appeared of a tall Anthony wearing a grim look as he passed his hand over a three-headed raccoon and a four-headed deer.

"This is Anthony as an adult. Still incredibly powerful. Perhaps even more powerful after years of using his power."

Rising from a clear shiny marble floor, Anthony moved through the arches and columns of what appeared to be a castle. Clapping his hands, he shouted to toga-clad men and women.

"Quickly, my servants! Heed me, Anthony the Great! Bring me my robe and my slippers!"

As the servants scattered, Rod Serling continued to narrate.

"A powerful boy becomes a powerful tyrannical adult. Unfortunately, the great Anthony may have forgotten the old saying, 'All good things must come to an end.' Master Anthony is about to learn that lesson here in 'The Twilight Zone.'"

(Here you can imagine the music sting from the end of "The Twilight Zone" theme.)

Dissolve to scene.

"Servants, bring me my wine!"

Anthony's booming voice echoed throughout the spacious marble throne room.

Brutus, the bushy-bearded winebearer dressed in a white toga and orange-and-black jester cap, promptly held out an ornate gold cup as he bent one knee and bowed his head.

"You spilled some if it!" Anthony spat. Quickly, he sipped from the chalice then made a face.

"Bah!" he said. "It's warm!" After angrily pouring out the liquid, Anthony hurled the chalice across the room where it clattered off the concrete wall.

Servants gasped and cowered.

"Forgive me, m-master," Brutus stammered but Anthony was already storming out of the room.

From the balcony, he looked out at the forest. It was filled with his creations: three-headed raccoons and four-headed deer. All kinds of animals with multiple heads.

He looked off in the distance at the cornfield. Long ago, he had sent away his parents and the other people in the town. Then he brought people out of the cornfield to be his servants. But oh, how those servants infuriated him at times! Perhaps he should send them all away and start with new ones.

As he often did, Anthony calmed himself by reflecting on his floating purple castle. Sometimes thinking about his castle was the only thing that made him happy.

"Hello, Anthony," someone said.

Without even looking, the man-child scowled. "How dare you be so impertinent as to address me by name!" With a mere thought, Anthony wished the offender into the cornfield.

"Begging your forgiveness, young master."

Anthony whirled around. For perhaps the first time in his life, he looked astonished.

Before him stood a familiar figure. He looked exactly like a drawing of Don Quixote Anthony knew from a children's book. White goatee (like the kind Colonel Sanders had), strands of white hair over the ears, a shiny bald head with wisps of hair over the center, sad dark eyes. He was tall and lanky and clad in silver armor.

The man waved a silver hand over his metal chest. "I took a familiar form to help put you at ease," he explained.

Scowling deeply, Anthony once again wished him away. The man simply stood there smiling. Again, Anthony wished, and again and again. Each time, nothing.

Unperturbed, Don Quixote spoke in a gentle quiet voice.

"We just wanted to thank you."

As Anthony's eyes widened, he took in more of the situation. Things that looked like cartoon raindrops, along with glowing white ovals, floated above Don Quixote, though one raindrop sat next to his metal feet.

Smiling so that his eyes squinted a little, Don gestured to the drops above him. "The others are assuming forms that are hopefully pleasant for you."

Smiling faces appeared on the raindrops and ovals, and they tilted back and forth. Anthony remembered seeing such things on a children's show, before he started creating his own TV.

The bearded one gestured to the raindrop at his feet.

"We are the Organians. On a previous visit to your planet, one of our little ones became too sick to travel. So we put him inside you. While you acted as a kind of incubator, you were able to access our combined power."

As Anthony stared with his mouth wide open, the smiley-face on the foot-raindrop moved its mouth. Out came the voice of a little boy.

"Thank you for letting me sleep inside you. I feel much better now."

As the bearded man smiled, he used his hand to gesture lowering something.

"We are using our combined power to bring your castle safely down to the ground."

"We don't want any of you to get hurt," the boy said. The others tittered like Munchkins.

"As we are leaving, we will cause your castle to vanish and send you and your friends back to your family farm," the boy said.

Holding out one hand, Don Quixote bowed. Then he turned into a smiley-face raindrop.

"We hope you have used our power wisely to make friends of many others."

The raindrops and ovals rose, laughing like Munchkins as they did. There were several high-pitched shouts of "Goodbye!"

The raindrops flew up into the sky until they were out of sight.

When Anthony looked back down, there was Brutus and the other servants all gathered around. The castle around them vanished, and they were standing on the Fremont farm where people stepped out of the cornfield.

The servants stared at Anthony in a way that was not only imperinent but downright insubordinate.

Immediately, Anthony slipped into imperious mode.

"Why do you just stand there? Bring me new wine! Fetch me my slippers!" As he raised a pointed finger, Anthony trembled just a little.

Removing his jester cap, Brutus narrowed his eyes. "No, Anthony. No, I don't believe we'll be doing that." Along with the other servants, he slowly stepped forward. "We won't be doing any of that any more."

"You must obey me!" Anthony shouted. As he backed away, he encountered the edge of the cornfield, where a man grabbed him and held him.

Brutus spoke in a cool calm voice that was almost chilling. "I don't believe we do." He lifted his eyebrows as he tiled his head. "In fact, let me be the first of many to give you a much-needed spanking...Master Anthony."

As the servants closed in on Anthony, the focus shifted from the cornfield to the sky and then to starry space where a group of glowing ovals quickly sped away.

With the focus on the stars in the night sky, Rod Serling narrated.

"Meet a former god named Anthony. This story illustrates that old saying, 'Be nice to people on your way up because you might meet them again on your way down.' This particular illustration could only be found in 'The Twilight Zone.'"


End file.
